*DCU cast-off Nicholas Addlery scores his third tournament goal as the USL1 Puerto Rico Islanders stun Mexican club Cruz Azul, 2-0, in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals. The return leg in Mexico City is in two weeks.

Hopefully MLS squads will be able to find the mettle to make a better show in both SuperLiga and CCL as a whole.

And cheers to the Pacific Northwest. Cheers to MLS leadership rewarding communities and fan bases that really do want the product. Welcome to the club Mr. Paulson and the Vancouver group. The days of 60% of team ownership being to one man seem so far gone.

While MLS still has some kinks to work out and will need committed support from loyal supporters and casual fans alike to get to the next level by improving salaries for all involved, this is indeed a better landscape than only 8 years ago.

As far as Rafa Marquez goes--it was about freaking time that FIFA took some sort of action. Just because you are the region's marque player, and captain of it's marquee team doesn't mean that you have a license to take danagerous, malicious cheapshots.

Honestly, I am still a bit amazed that this actually happened. I didn't think that CONCACAF was going to do anything or that FIFA was going to do anything. I am stunned.

I don't know the D.C. metro area, but I just looked up that stadium location on Google Maps and it is a little disappointing how far east it is (when the bulk of the population seems to be north). But it's literally blocks away from FedEx Field, so hopefully that's a good sign.

"Adderly's goal was spectacular -- a perfectly placed volley off of the side of his right foot."

Huh? The Azul defense tried a trap, which failed miserably, allowing Addlery to use his 5 inch vertical leap to reach out and barely deflect the ball. Having watched him here for United, I'm pretty sure that the he closed his eyes and hoped for the best.

Guadette, on the other hand, owned Azul---and he'll have to play even better on the return leg.

I still say PR will get hosed in the altitude of Mexico City, but am hoping for a 2-1 agg for PR.

TheWashDipsSince88 -- in answer to your question, we let Addlery go while he was here because he didn't play well while he was here.

delantero -- I'd certainly agree with you given how Addlery performed here; but it's one hell of a lucky streak we're appealing to to explain his performance in the competition as a whole. Maybe Chris Clarke is better at developing him than Tom Soehn or Chad Ashton were. -shrug-

Great win for the Islanders yesterday. For all the hoopla that Addlery is getting for his first goal (it was OK), I was most impressed with the set-up and finish of their first goal. That move that froze two Cruz Azul defenders (and probably even the keeper) was sweet. The finish must be appreciated too, because I have seen (all too often) players make a mess out of such a chance. So big ups to Gbandi on his goal. Guadette was a monster out there. If he continues this kind of strong showing I could see MLS teams with weak starters come a knocking on the Islander's door.

That win sets up a juicy showdown in two weeks. However that game goes down, I have nothing but the highest esteem for how the USL-1 teams represented their league in the maiden round of the CCL. Our MLS representatives need to take something away from this.

"In other words, Johnson's hoping Metro will feel bad for Prince George's and hand over the land for a few autographed soccer balls."

Wow! Now that is objective reporting. You couldn't possibly get something as well written on any of these posts in Soccer Insider. ;-)
I'm almost positive I read that Metro is amicable to selling the parcel for this (I think it was in an earlier Post article but I may be wrong). Why wouldn't they be. It's certainly going to increase the use of the station. It's a win-win for them.

Totally remote. Rodez is sorta 'scrubby', but just north and west of there you've got the vallee du lot and the gorges and the Aveyron has more of the 'hundred villes' of France than any other region. Not to mention Roquefort, laguiole knives, Millau, iron wine, some of the best lamb anywhere and cheap gites not full of drunk brits.

crofton - yep, nowadays the talking head media just assume that if there is a stadium story they MUST go with a 'boondoggle' angle to generate the most controversy. Nevermind the facts - or even asking WMATA what they actually think about the story!

Goff, nice write up on United. I think you pretty much touched on my main concerns about the team this year:

1. Defense - We lack leadership and experience.

2. Flank play - Our best flank players (Fred and Quaranta - both injured) are not suited for a 3-5-2 formation. However the formation helps the defense stay compact.

3. Durability - United focused on adding depth in the off-season to provide relief for players like Gomez, Moreno, and Emilio who will be relied up yet again to carry this team.

The real question mark on the season is whether the Defense can settle in and work together to shut down attacks. Hopefully a full season with Crayton will help that process, but someone (Janicki, Jakovic, McTavish, or one of our 6'20" new signings) needs to step up and become the leader mentally, physically, and vocally in defense.

DCAustinite: when was the last time you were there (Clermont-Ferrand)? My wife lived there in 2003, working for Michelin. Since then, the downtown has undergone a complete renovation (you can see pics of it using google maps). There's a trend sweeping France for installing trolley cars -everywhere-. Clermont-Ferrand, Nice...

It's pretty simple. Addlery wasn't a good fit for our system. He didn't really combine well with anyone, and his touch was well below any acceptable standard for DC United.

He's improved, to be sure, but honestly I think he'd be on the losing side of a battle with Doe for PT on this team. Having not seen N'Silu yet, Addlery might be even further down our depth chart were he still here.

***

The Islanders game last night was basically a 90 minute summation of all their games in the competition: bury your first chance, limit your opponent mostly to shooting outside the box, play as simply as possibly, and hope Gaudette comes up with saves.

The first goal was superb, and on the 2nd I come down somewhere between the "it was brilliant" crowd and delantero's opinion. Still, the fact that Gaudette had 9 saves and Cruz Azul forced 11 corners speaks to how much they dominated the run of play. Unfortunately for them, the Islanders simply don't waste chances; how many times now have they barely created any chances, yet scored 2 or 3 goals?

Also, was I the only person that thought Christian Miles and Brian Dunseth were really awful (even for their standards) in calling the game? I counted at least 4 references to Carlos Bonet making a pass, despite the fact that he did not play in the game. Even after Dunseth caught his mistake and mentioned that Bonet was on the bench, Miles mistook Torrado (Cruz Azul's biggest-name player!) for him twice in the ensuing 10 minutes. They also got both teams' formations wrong, and then got the ensuing tactical adjustments wrong. It was ridiculous.

Or I should say, Channel 4 - speaking for Metro - might not be too pleased with the way Johnson is going about it. Ugh

Posted by: Kev29 | March 18, 2009 10:58 AM
===========================================
OK, perhaps Mr. Iovino's little bit of yellow journalism got me a bit hot under the collar. I decided to leave a little love note for him in the comments:

"Could your article have possibly been any more slanted and/or biased? On what basis are you able to take what was written and by some bizarre, twisted alchemy turn it into "In other words, Johnson's hoping Metro will feel bad for Prince George's and hand over the land for a few autographed soccer balls."? You admit there was no purchase price mentioned, and yet you are already convinced that YOU know if it will be an acceptable offer or not. Well, Nostradamous, perhaps a journalism ethics course or three might be in order for you since despite your alleged title as a "professional news reporter", you clearly can't write an unbiased, FACT-based article."

Now, time for a few deep breaths and a cold Sam Adams Black Lager to cool off a bit...

Way to go! It gets worse. This is a paragraph from the same author yesterday.

"After crashing state servers with a plethora of e-mails, D.C. United fans converged on Annapolis in person Tuesday to support the franchise's plan to move to Prince George's County and build a new stadium ... with public funding, of course."

Having reviewed it, I've concluded the Barra regularly breaches at least 4 of 6 provisions -- throughout each game. At least there won't be any more political messages to Fenty. Will the Barra be waving Maryland flags soon?

Lest you complain that the Code of Conduct is a unilateral imposition on fans, the league also included its own pledge to fans. Unfortunately, there was nothing in there about electricity for night games.

1. Our chants are definitely not respectful to refs, opposing fans, or opposing fans. I don't have any problem with this, as long as it's creative and we avoid all the negative -isms. "F-U Ref" doesn't pass that test, in my estimation, since it's about as creative as playing in the dirt for fun.

2. Things were going so well on #2 (if you count beer as liquid confetti, which I do) until the part about foul and obscene language/gestures. This is more or less the same violation as #1, and if I'm not mistaken redundancies cancel each other out. We're in the clear so far!

3. As far as I know, this one we pass. Occasionally new RFK staffers ask everyone in 230 to sit down, but casually pointing out that sitting means not seeing the game tends to make them give up...well, that and the whole section basically ignoring the request.

4. Check.

5. This past season, I saw someone that was drunk out of their mind attempt to run during one of the Houston rain delays, and face plant on the concourse. However, he was responsibly helped up by people of legal drinking age, so I think we're OK here as well.

6. I haven't seen much of anything going on in the parking lot to violate this one, unless you count the robbery of the parking charges. What is it this year, $60? $70?

In all seriousness, if the letter of the law was applied on the loud side, we'd no longer have a loud side. Luckily, the team and RFK officials seem to understand that lax enforcement has helped foster the environment we pride ourselves on creating.

@ Chest -- Agreed. I didn't mean my post as a caution for the Barra. I was making the point that we can't take much of the Code too seriously. Stick to the FIFA racism code, and the criminal law for other offenses. Local standards of decency should have some effect. Sexist gestures might be a wee bit more offensive in DC than in Mexico, where they're a rite of passage. On the other hand, are ya gonna toss a whole section for wolf whistles?

"After crashing state servers with a plethora of e-mails, D.C. United fans converged on Annapolis in person Tuesday to support the franchise's plan to move to Prince George's County and build a new stadium ... with public funding, of course."
--Looking only at this paragraph -- what's inaccurate about it? I assume servers did not literally crash, but the idea of many emails being sent is a compliment to the email campaign, isn't it? And the funding is indeed public, right?

Didn't say anything about bootlegging or smoking rope in the concourse did it?
Vamos United!!!
Off Topic: Direct kick will only be doing the freebie this weekend, correct? No freebie on the 28th for the HOme Opener right???
Also... Is there a chance that the match will be re-aired by comcast the next day??? I swore, something similar may have happened last year, but could be way wrong. Father inlaws birthday weekend is going to make it impossible for me to make the opener in person, and we're not going to *ruin* dinner unless the game is coming in for free on their Direct TV connection. Don't even ask about watching online, they've got dial up...
Luckily we've worked out watching US/ES and should be making a bit of a party of it if I can help it..:-)

MY bad. I misread the schedule. The opener is on CSN, but you're right -- the next 7 are not. It's like they're trying to force people to come to the stadium, if they want to see United play.... One game at the Bulls on TeleFutura (Verizon still hasn't added this, right?). And one ESPN2 game. Otherwise, you gotta go to the game.

I assume that the CSNHD games are still available to those without HDTV? If so, all the other games will be available on basic cable/FiOS, except the last one. While I encourage folks to come out to games -- especially those who want a new stadium paid out of public funds (either in MD or DC) -- Comcast needs to cover more games. If they can't show it on their regular channel, they could air it on CSN+...

Never saw any CSN+ last season, while a game or two ended up there the year before...
MLSlive.tv is the way to go.. unfortunately the internet out at grandpa's (in the *country*) isn't gonna support a live feed wether I pay for it or not. I don't think you can buy a *game day ticket* on DK can you? That'd be the only possible way I'll be able to watch the Home OPener live at this point. But MLSlive.tv will allow you to watch a ton of games over the course of the season. Just remember that if it's on FSC,FSE, ESPN,ESPN2, or TElefutura it is subject to global blackout... Soooo if your *local* isn't picking it up you're going to have to either go to your respective game or to a location with a Direct Kick subscription.
I don't think it's cool that we can't watch every single game on *free tv* but I won't complain about the surplus of DCU matches I went to last season due to having no other choice if I wanted to see the game. If I didn't have a neighbor with the goods, and I couldn't get it online, I would just roll out...

I'm glad the MLS is instituting a fan code of conduct. How they're going to enforce it at RFK, though, is the question. While I respect the enthusiasm of the Barra Brava and Screaming Eagles, both groups tend to take things too far, from the obscene chants to the thrown beer after goals. You can cheer for DC United without acting like a hooligan.

Never saw any CSN+ last season, while a game or two ended up there the year before...

Posted by: DadRyan | March 18, 2009 11:39 PM

CSN+ becomes MASN2 in April, so that limits the option of moving games there. And Comcast find a way to show the number of matches they have in the contract with United. If we want more, the club will have to up their (in my opinion, very good) terms.

The United opener - US conflict is nothing short of a total joke. There is no excuse for MLS scheduling matches where fans will have to choose between attending a soccer game and watching their national team play live on television. If MLS must play that weekend, coordinate with US/CONCACAF and have matches kick-off late in the afternoon.